By Caleb Compton
Published: 4 September 2026
The Prime Minister’s pledge to end rough sleeping, including the commitment to bring everyone sleeping rough indoors by Christmas, represents a significant opportunity to make progress towards ending rough sleeping for good. This week, we brought frontline experience and insight to Number 10 as part of that conversation.
Our CEO Duncan Shrubsole and The Connection at St Martin’s CEO Pam Orchard met with the Number 10 Policy Unit to talk about the Prime Minister’s recent commitment to end rough sleeping and to get everyone sleeping rough indoors by Christmas.
Ending rough sleeping was one of Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first commitments when he took office, which signalled a renewed focus from the Government on tackling an issue that continues to affect thousands of people across the country.
In July, we welcomed the Government’s bold commitment, which comes at a time when record numbers of people are sleeping rough – 4,793 people were found to be sleeping rough on a single night in Autumn 2025. Since then, the Government has committed £340 million to end rough sleeping, with a further £102 million announced in August to help offer everyone sleeping rough a route off the streets by Christmas.
We were pleased to discuss these commitments directly with the Number 10 Policy Unit and to share the experience and insight we’ve gained through our work with people experiencing homelessness, frontline workers and organisations across the UK. Together, our charities work with London’s most entrenched rough sleepers and support frontline workers, projects and partners across the UK. Drawing on our experience of what works, we stressed that delivering the Prime Minister’s commitment will require the right funding framework, strong leadership and reliable data.
Frontline expertise will be crucial
We know that frontline workers will play a key role in turning this ambition into reality. Our latest Frontline Worker Survey highlights both the importance of this work and the challenges services are facing. Frontline workers are seeing higher demand on their services, increasing barriers to suitable accommodation and a growing concern about the future of homelessness.
The experience of frontline workers will provide valuable insights into what is needed to end rough sleeping, and to ensure that people are able to sustain their accommodation and avoid returning to homelessness.
An opportunity for lasting change
The Government’s recent commitments to ending rough sleeping present an important opportunity to make a lasting impact on people’s lives. To end rough sleeping for good, we also need to tackle the structural issues that can prevent people from moving away from the streets, including housing supply and allocations, Local Housing Allowance rates, funding for services and barriers faced by non-UK nationals.
Adequate funding will also be needed to recruit, support and retain skilled frontline staff. These are issues that have impacted previous efforts to end rough sleeping, and addressing them will be essential to sustained progress beyond Christmas.
St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity is ready to play our part, working alongside government and partners across the sector to help make this ambition a reality.
